The award-winning ecological engineering (EE) TV series developed by the ADB-IRRI Rice Planthopper Project in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and TV Vinh Long was launched on 23 June 2012 in Vinh Long. The series known locally as “Cong Nghe Sinh Thai” was developed as an entertainment-education program to bring about positive attitude and practice changes among rice farmers in Vietnam in pest management. Each episode has 3 parts beginning with a short comedy skit followed by an explanatory discussion with a local expert and wrapped up with a short discussion on benefits of using EE. A total of 45 episodes, broadcast twice weekly, were on air and these are available from the TV Vinh Long website. At the 32nd National TV Festival in December 2012, “Cong Nghe Sinh Thai” won the Gold Medal in the science education category.

The TV series has 3 parts starting with a comedy skit by popular comedians.

Two months after the launch, a “Meet the actors” day was organized to popularize the series and in monitoring focus group discussions we found that the lessons in the series were well understood. In August 2013 a post-broadcast assessment survey was conducted through structured interviews of 593 farmer respondents in the provinces of Vinh Long, Tien Giang and Dong Thap in the Mekong Delta. The questionnaire was prepared in English after focus group discussions and translated into Vietnamese and then pretested before administering the survey.

Table 1: Comparison of respondent profile, sample sizes and farmers’ input practices between viewers and non viewers of the ecological engineering TV series in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Parameters

Viewers

Non viewers

F values

Sig

Sample size (N)

351

242

Age (years)

49.2

49.7

0.24

ns

Years in rice farming (years)

24.5

23.8

0.50

ns

Education (years)

8.1

7.0

18.3

**

Yield last season (t/ha)

6.1

5.9

4.6

*

Seed rate (kg/ha)

167.4

186.7

26.5

**

Nitrogen application (kg/ha)

88.9

94.3

4.1

*

Number of insecticide sprays last season

2.1

2.6

21.1

**

Day of 1st insecticide application

31.0

26.7

22.0

**

% farmers with no insecticide application

8.0%

4.1%

ns not significant * significant at p = 0.05 ** significant at 0.01

Of the farmers interviewed, about 41% had not watched any of the TV series episodes. Most farmers (60%) watched five or fewer episodes and only 7% had watched more than15 episodes. Farmers who had viewed the TV series spray significantly less insecticides (19% less), used less nitrogen fertilizer (6% less), lower seed rates (12% less) and applied their first insecticides later in the season (Table 1). The yields of viewers were marginally higher than non viewers (difference of 0.2 t/ha).

Farmers who had watched the TV series could recall what they learned from the series. Table 2 shows the most common lessons farmers cited. Although the idea of growing nectar flowers on the bunds for pest management was only launched in 2011, a higher proportion of TV series viewers had recalled the various lessons they had learned.

Table 2: TV series viewers recalling what they had learned from the TV series.

If insecticides are to be used, apply them correctly according to 4 rights

11.9

Techniques in flower growing

9.6

*Multiple response

In addition, the TV series viewers cited various benefits (Table 3) they had obtained from the TV educational series. A high proportion cited reducing production cost, chemical inputs, increasing profits and reducing labor costs as benefits.